The UK’s new science minister, former DCMS chief Michelle Donelan, has said the government is prepared to abandon the £89bn European Horizon funding programme for scientific research.
Donelan has said the UK will “go it alone” if there is no resolution to the current stalemate caused by disagreements over the Northern Ireland Protocol.
The UK’s current position, frozen out of the programme while negotiations drag on, has already led to several leading scientists relocating their activities to within the EU, while several UK research institutions have reported difficulties in attracting talent to the UK due to the uncertainty.
Writing in The Telegraph over the weekend, Donelan said: “If we cannot associate, we are more than ready to go it alone with our own global-facing alternative, working with science powerhouses like the US, Switzerland and Japan to deliver international science collaborations. I will not sit idly by while our researchers are sidelined. The time for waiting is quickly coming to an end and I will not shy away from striking out alone.”
The scientific community has broadly welcomed Donelan’s willingness to look for alternative sources of funding and collaboration, while questioning the logic behind what appears to be another case of putting ideology ahead of practicality by potentially freezing out the economic and political giant on the UK’s doorstep post-Brexit.
James Wilsdon, a professor of research policy at UCL, told The Guardian yesterday: “While it’s sensible that Michelle Donelan is ramping up preparations for life outside Horizon Europe, she needs to temper her hubris with a dose of realism. As any researcher knows, you can’t simply swap out one set of collaborative relationships, built up over decades, for new and different ones elsewhere – particularly as a product of political diktat. That’s not how science works.
“There’s no scenario in which life outside Horizon will be good for UK science.”
Prof Dame Anne Johnson, the president of the Academy of Medical Sciences, added: “The scientific community strongly believes that association to the Horizon Europe funding programme is best for research in the UK and in Europe, and will improve health for all. We urge the new secretary of state to seize the opportunity to secure this outcome. It will send a strong message that the UK is open for business and remains a premier destination to work on health research that improves lives.”
Horizon Europe is the EU’s key funding programme for research and innovation with a budget of €95.5 billion to 2027. It tackles climate change, helps to achieve the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and boosts the EU’s competitiveness and growth.
